Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults On Composers Since Beethovens Time"A supermarket tabloid of classical music criticism."—From the new foreword by Peter Schickele. A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. Who wrote advanced cat music? What commonplace theme is very much like Yankee Doodle? Which composer is a scoundrel and a giftless bastard? What opera would His Satanic Majesty turn out? Whose name suggests fierce whiskers stained with vodka? And finally, what third movement begins with a dog howling at midnight, then imitates the regurgitations of the less-refined or lower-middle-class type of water-closet cistern, and ends with the cello reproducing the screech of an ungreased wheelbarrow? For the answers to these and other questions, readers need only consult the "Invecticon" at the back of this inspired book and then turn to the full passage, in all its vituperation. Among the eminent reviewers are George Bernard Shaw, Virgil Thomson, Hans von Bülow, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Hanslick, Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, Paul Rosenfeld, and Oscar Wilde. Itself a classic, this collection of nasty barbs about composers and their works, culled mostly from contemporaneous newspapers and magazines, makes for hilarious reading and belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves—or hates —classical music. With a new foreword by Peter Schickele ("P.D.Q. Bach"). |
Contents
NONACCEPTANCE OF THE UNFAMILIAR | 3 |
BARTÓK | 39 |
BEETHOVEN | 42 |
BERG | 53 |
BERLIOZ | 57 |
BIZET | 62 |
BLOCH | 66 |
BRAHMS | 68 |
PUCCINI | 135 |
RACHMANINOFF | 137 |
RAVEL | 138 |
REGER | 139 |
RIEGGER | 142 |
RIMSKYKORSAKOV | 143 |
RUGGLES | 146 |
SAINTSAENS | 147 |
BRUCKNER | 80 |
CHOPIN | 83 |
COPLAND | 86 |
COWELL | 88 |
DEBUSSY | 89 |
FRANCK | 104 |
GERSHWIN | 105 |
GOUNOD | 106 |
HARRIS | 107 |
DINDY | 108 |
KRENEK | 110 |
LISZT | 111 |
MAHLER | 120 |
MILHAUD | 124 |
MOUSSORGSKY | 127 |
PROKOFIEV | 129 |
SCHOENBERG | 148 |
SCHUMANN | 168 |
SCRIABIN | 172 |
SHOSTAKOVITCH | 175 |
SIBELIUS | 178 |
STRAUSS | 180 |
STRAVINSKY | 196 |
TCHAIKOVSKY | 205 |
VARÈSE | 213 |
VERDI | 218 |
WAGNER | 222 |
WEBERN | 249 |
INVECTICON | 253 |
285 | |
SUPPLEMENT | 297 |
Other editions - View all
Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults On Composers Since ... Nicolas Slonimsky No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Alban Berg Arnold Schoenberg audience Bartók Beethoven Berg Berlin Berlioz Bizet Bloch Boston Daily Advertiser Brahms Brahms's Bruckner c'est cacophony cat music chaos Chopin chords composer composer's composition Copland D'Indy d'une Debussy December discords dissonances Edgard Varèse Eduard Hanslick February future H. E. Krehbiel H. F. Chorley harmony heard Herr hideous instruments January Krenek listener Liszt London Louis Elson Mahler March melody Ménestrel ment Milhaud modern Moussorgsky movement music critics Musical Courier Musical World Musicale musicians Musik musikalisch musique noise November October Olin Downes opera orchestra Overture Paris Pelléas et Mélisande performance piece played Prokofiev Puccini Quartet Ravel Reger rhythm Richard Strauss Richard Wagner Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Sacre du Printemps Saint-Saëns Schönberg Schumann score Scriabin Second Symphony seems Shostakovitch Sibelius sounds strange Stravinsky Tannhäuser Tchaikovsky themes thing tion tonal tune ugly Varèse Vienna Violin vulgar W. J. Henderson Webern write wrong notes wrote York Sun